city as he relinquishes his thrown. cardinals around the world will gather to determine who will succeed him. what direction will the church go in let's ask nbc news vatican analyst who's in roam for us. george, i want to dive right in because i know we have got a delay to worry about. most people know the role of the pope as the spiritual leader among catholics, but of course his other job is to proselytize and grow his flock. if you look around the landscape of global catholicism, you see that catholicism is very important in parts of europe, south america and south africa. should that be a consideration in choosing the next pope, finding someone who might be able to grow the flock in area where is catholicism is least represented? >> reporter: first of all the church is actually in very bad shape in a lot of western europe. and what we need, i think, what the church needs, is a pope who wherever he comes from is such a radically converted disciple of jesus crist is that he can invite people to consider the possibilit